I love it when you hold me close II

In connection with Hold\ – the MFA Graduation Exhibition 2025, Vilja Houen Askelund and Benjamin Wan Fuk Hsieh present the performance I love it when you hold me close II.
About the work
In the performance I love it when you hold me close II Vilja is practicing jiu-jitsu with her boyfriend, Benjamin. He guides her through different positions and a planned fight ensues between them. It is both a learning situation and a workout.
About the artist
Vilja Houen Askelund is an artist from Stavanger who lives and works in Oslo. In her practice she is interested in teenageness as a cultural phenomenon: how we understand and relate to the world as teenagers. She does sculptures and works with textile, clay, objects and collages. Askelund holds a Bachelor's degree from the Academy of Fine Arts at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and is currently finishing her MFA.
About the exhibition
Between 05.06.25 – 30.07.25 the Master's students in Fine Art at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts present their graduation projects in a joint degree exhibition on the first floor of Kunstnernes Hus.